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[Arrowgigantic]

When Leigh Alexander came to Kotaku in april of this year, I though Kotaku would get some actual journalists on board, but the fact that only 4 months later she went back to gamasutra, tells me that serious journalism wasn't appreciated...

It's very hard to work there if you want to do anything on top of providing a service. Insight, entertainment value, basic grasp of English-- all ancillary concerns.

 

[Foxtastical]

Gamers who can write and not journalists/writers who happen to be gamers.

It never gets old.

 

[Opiate]

I'm not sure if anyone feels the same way I do, but here goes.

I don't personally have any problem with puerile, snarky humor in the form of a gaming site that posts all the random gaming rumors. On the other hand, I greatly appreciate responsible and objective journalism. Both of these things can live side by side, as tabloids and respected newspapers do.

However, I do have a problem with people who try to be both at the same time, and in my experience, that is what Kotaku tries to do. You can either be a sophomoric jokester that posts sensationalist pap, or you can be an objective reporter with credibility and ethics, but accept that this sort of understated information is going to bore 16 year old boys to tears. You can not be McNeil/Lehrer and E! Entertainment News simultaneously. Make your choice.

 

[2 Minutes Turkish]

Way to go rumortaku.

But just throwing it around anyway, the NextBox should really be called Xbox Live. Everything is already set up and it's a known brand.

 

[Staccat0]

Did anybody mention yet what a stupid thing this was to have a contest about? Since blogs like Kotaku drive traffic to your site, you reward them by making them look like morons for doing so? Way to go!

I'm pretty sure Kotaku did that themselves. The contest didnt target kotaku alone.

 

[theBishop]

CheapyD deserves a little scorn for encouraging the spread of false information.

But clearly, Kotaku are the big losers here. You can't be taken seriously when your best excuse is "this message board was right before".

 

[Opiate]

CheapyD deserves a little scorn for encouraging the spread of false information.

But clearly, Kotaku are the big losers here. You can't be taking seriously when your best excuse is "this message board was right before".

I agree with the above assessment. Again, this isn't a problem if Crescente doesn't want to be taken seriously, and accepts the role of Kotaku as gaming fluff and humor. However, it's apparent that he wants to post this sort of unchecked information and be taken seriously, which is not acceptable.

 

[firehawk12]

New CAGCast is up and they're talking about the issue right off the bat.
link

 

[Metalic Sand]

CheapyD deserves a little scorn for encouraging the spread of false information.

But clearly, Kotaku are the big losers here. You can't be taken seriously when your best excuse is "this message board was right before".

CheapyD deserves no scorn, He just proved his point that all these Gaming blogs are shit. Its better to have something proven to show that they the gamerblogs are shit then to just throw something out there and attack someone without having anything to back you up.

CheapyD owned them, Simple as that. Brian Crecente is a JOKE. BuBuBuBu CAG is no longer credible! If anything he should be getting praised for this. Its funny how Brian crecente now has to attack CAG for his mistake.

 

[Dreamwriter]

Kotaku, do 5 seconds of fact checking next time, and save us all your five minutes of fake news and five more seconds of whining.

A few people have been saying this. Ignoring the whole thing of Kotaku's response to CAG's contest, what pray-tell 5 seconds of fact checking could Kotaku have done? Contact Microsoft? "Microsoft doesn't comment on rumors or speculation". The blog itself of course didn't say it was fake, and was acting as the primary web source of the information, claiming the source also got other things right in the past (Xbox 360 Elite, HDMI port). The contest itself wasn't something posted on CAG's website that they could just read, it was in a Podcast. Heck, other sites fell for it too (and first), so Kotaku had that to solidify the rumor.

So Kotaku posted it as a rumor, and made clear the exact source of it, so I don't see what mistake Kotaku made in the initial posting of the rumor. They are a gaming blog which prints clearly labelled rumors, and one would hope the average reader would understand the term "rumor"

 

[Opiate]

CheapyD deserves no scorn, He just proved his point that all these Gaming blogs are shit. Its better to have something proven to show that they the gamerblogs are shit then to just throw something out there and attack someone without having anything to back you up.

This assessment requires a Machiavellian ethos, which isn't something I personally ascribe to. If we agree that the means by which this task was accomplished were duplicitous -- and I don't think that's in question -- then I think we should just leave it at that, and not get in to a more sophisticated moral debate.

 

[Poimandres]

This assessment requires a Machiavellian ethos, which isn't something I personally ascribe to. If we agree that the means by which this task was accomplished were duplicitous -- and I don't think that's in question -- then I think we should just leave it at that, and not get in to a more sophisticated moral debate.

Hmm, yes, yes I see. *strokes chin*

 

[Core407]

Kotaku is the epitome of shit - nothing more than Xbox fanboys who'll post anything to gain some hits.

 

[Aselith]

A few people have been saying this. Ignoring the whole thing of Kotaku's response to CAG's contest, what pray-tell 5 seconds of fact checking could Kotaku have done? Contact Microsoft? "Microsoft doesn't comment on rumors or speculation". The blog itself of course didn't say it was fake, and was acting as the primary web source of the information, claiming the source also got other things right in the past (Xbox 360 Elite, HDMI port). The contest itself wasn't something posted on CAG's website that they could just read, it was in a Podcast. Heck, other sites fell for it too (and first), so Kotaku had that to solidify the rumor.

So Kotaku posted it as a rumor, and made clear the exact source of it, so I don't see what mistake Kotaku made in the initial posting of the rumor. They are a gaming blog which prints clearly labelled rumors, and one would hope the average reader would understand the term "rumor"

If you can't in some way substantiate it, even by the source's reputation, you should not post it. You might as well just make the shit up. If you have a generally reliable source who floats a rumour and it's wrong, well, you got a little egg on your face and you move on. Putting something under rumour though does not justify floating a completely unsupported tidbit. That's why real news organizations cultivate industry contacts.

 

[MacBosse]

Kotaku is the epitome of shit - nothing more than Xbox fanboys who'll post anything to gain some hits.

Xbox fanboys? The fuck?

 

[firehawk12]

Did anyone listen to the podcast yet?
Anyway, the poster won a copy of Madden 09 and SOCOM with headset.

And CheapyD has sort of lightened up about the whole issue and considers blogs to be tabloid entertainment rather than hard news. His wife actually changed his mind on the whole issue. He's just worried that now he'll have to avoid Crecente at events like TGS or E3 in the future.

Oh, and of course, Wombat just loved seeing the shit happen as it happened just like the rest of us.

 

[Doc Lobster]

CheapyD's official response:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/?f=408